Protons and Electrons
by Hijojo
Summary: One shot, Nagase/Gaku. A night of reflection by Gaku leads to a surprising meeting.


**Protons and Electrons**

Another late night in the Chemistry studio. Gaku sighed. All he wanted was to be able to go back to his nice room, take a shower, and fall asleep. Maybe he even had time to see Sora-senpai, too; their rooms were close after all. He thought for a second, then decided against it. He didn't want to interrupt anything with Fujimori-senpai, after all. Much as his friend might deny it, there was definitely something between the two of them.

Gaku was bored. He observed the chemical reaction, then lazily jotted down some notes on it. It wouldn't be nearly as boring if Nagase-buchou was here, though, he thought. He shook his head, blushing, then forced himself to pay attention to whatever the hell he was supposed to be doing. It still wasn't interested.

His thoughts wandered back to Nagase-buchou again. His crush on the scientist wasn't exactly a secret, but still, he tried to hide it. His target of affection probably wasn't that concerned with things like relationship. He'd just say something like, "They get in the way of scientific progress," while jotting down notes and paying full attention to his experiment.

He pouted. His crush was _sooooooo_ cool, he thought. But he really didn't think he stood much of a chance of getting together with him. Beside the aforementioned lack of interest he would probably show, Nagase-buchou probably wouldn't want to do something like that with him. He was like the exact opposite of the Chemistry Club's leader, after all. Despite that he hoped it would be like some simple chemistry; opposites attracting like protons and electrons.

Finished with the boring chemistry experiment, he started to clean it up. Maybe he'd make some ramen before he left, he was a bit hungry. But it was late and he was tired, so Gaku decided against it. He stood up, stretched out a bit, then looked around. Just about everyone else was back in their dorm room by now. Yawning, he clumsily washed his equipment and put it away.

Heading to the door, Gaku stopped when he heard a faint sound. But he listened for a moment and when nothing else happened, he walked out of the room. The chemistry room itself was in a very inconvenient place; the fourth floor of the science building. As a result, not many people liked to go up there, but Gaku didn't mind. Especially since Nagase-buchou was up there so much. Or, perhaps, because Nagase-buchou was up there so much Gaku didn't mind.

Walking down the first flight of stairs, Gaku thought he heard another sound. Just ignoring it, however, he walked down to the third story. Nope, nothing at all here, he thought, mostly trying to reassure himself. He wasn't exactly the calmest person out there, to put it lightly. And with that ghost that appeared not that long ago, he was definitely on edge walking through the dark corridors in the middle of the night with no one around. Damn it, now he was just making himself nervous. Total failure at reassuring himself. Whoops.

He heard that sound again. Like someone was walking, he finally figured out. A-duh, he probably should've figured that out sooner, but he was tired. Maybe it was Nagase-buchou, Gaku figured. He did have pretty loud footsteps, oddly enough. Gaku always figured he would have quieter footsteps, to fit in with his quiet persona. Although he could, on occasion, be talkative if he was describing chemical reactions or something like that, but in his own cool way.

"He-hello?" Gaku called out, wondering if it was indeed a person, instead of a ghost or just his imagination. And, if it was a person, hopefully it was Nagase-buchou or even Hano, instead of some random crazy kidnapper. He still wasn't making himself feel better with these thoughts.

"Anyone there? Nagase-buchou?" called Gaku again, not speaking loudly in the off chance it was indeed some random crazy kidnapper. He took another step down the stairs, and peered downwards. He heard the sound again, definitely coming from the first floor. He wondered if he should turn on a light, but that might attract the presence of the unknown person. Besides, he could see well enough in the dark, thanks to the moonlight.

He took some more steps down, trying to position himself to see the door. He tried to be as quiet as possible, but almost tripping on one of the stairs caused that to fail. He caught himself on the banister, still, it wasn't his brightest moment. Oh well, he thought.

"Um... Anyone there? Hello?"

"Hello," a voice answered. Gaku knew who's it was right away. Of course, it couldn't be anyone but his beloved Nagase-buchou! He smiled, somewhat relieved it wasn't a psycho killer like he had convinced himself. Whew.

"Nagase-buchou! What're you doing here? It's really late, ya know!"

Nagase nodded his head, then began to speak in that cold voice he always used, "I passed by and saw a light. Were you up there?"

Gaku nodded vigorously. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that! I kinda forgot to do some stuff, so I just was finishing that up!" He rubbed the back of his back sheepishly, embarrassed to be caught doing so by his crush. Not the best way to make a positive impression, Gaku was well aware.

"The results for tomorrow, I take it?" Nagase spoke in a neutral tone.

"Um... Yeah! Sorry..." Gaku looked away, hoping not to see disappointment in Nagase's face.

"No need to apologize. Those results were not important, merely a continued experiment, if you recall."

Gaku turned back to Nagase, still not happy with his quote unquote secret being found out. "Yeah, I remember! But, uh, I didn't want to look lazy... Not to you, I mean..."

Nagase tilted his head to one side, looking at Gaku oddly. "You have proven yourself to be a hard worker. One piece of data is a clear outlier in otherwise consistent data."

"I guess so... Still, I mean, I want to do all I can to help you, Nagase-buchou!"

"Why?" The question stood in the air for a moment, as Gaku looked for a way to answer and Nagase gazed at him.

"Well, I mean... 'Cause I like you, Nagase-buchou! So I don't want to look bad to you!" Gaku proclaimed loudly, with a blush on his cheeks. Nagase took a moment to process this new information, then took a step forward towards Gaku.

"Um, when I said that, Nagase-buchou, I mean, uh..." Gaku stammered, just realizing now his confession. Nagase ignored his stammering and continued walking towards Gaku. When he reached his assistant, he quickly grasped the young man's body and pulled it towards his, a bit mechanically.

"Nagase-buchou?" Gaku said, confused, muffled by the jacket of his crush. "What're you doing?"

"Mutual affection between two people means some sort of relationship is in order, correct?"

"Hm?" Gaku muffled. "What're you talking about, Nagase-buchou?"

"... A relationship therefore makes logical sense in this situation."

"Eh?!"

With a smirk on his face, Nagase looked down on the shorter boy, who was still clutching him, not really aware of what was going on. He broke apart from his assistant, then leaned in, solidly getting him by the lips. Gaku relaxed and closed his eyes, content. Yep, chemistry proves useful again, he figured.


End file.
